Sex robots could help your marriage: UBC prof

Is your marriage feeling shaky? One UBC professor says she has an answer: sex robots.

Introducing a robotic element to your marriage could take the focus off sex and place it back on love, says economics professor Marina Adshade in her new book, Robot Sex: Social and Ethical Implications.

People have become “increasingly demanding” in what they want from marriage,” Adshade said in a release Tuesday.

“There was a time when women were happy to have a husband that supported the family and men were happy to have a caring mother to his children,” she said.

“Today, we still want those things, but we also want so much more— we want lasting sexual compatibility, intense romance, and someone who is an amazing co-parent. That is a lot to ask of one person.”

That’s apparently where the sex robots come in.

“Sex robots, I think, will help move us away from thinking that we need to get everything from one person and allow us to focus on other qualities in a marriage partner, free of the requirement of sexual compatibility.”

Adshade doesn’t think anyone should worry about being replaced.

“Just because we might enjoy the company of robots doesn’t mean that we cannot also enjoy the company of humans, or that having robots won’t enhance our relationships with humans,” she said.

“I see them as very different things.”

Sex robots, however, could change what marriages look like in the future.

“More couples could choose ‘companionship marriages’ that do not involve sex, but focus solely on the creation of a family,” Adshade said.

“Marriage will continue to be the cornerstone of our society – I don’t doubt that – but it will not be what we have come to think about as ‘traditional marriage.’”